Leaders of the pack

InTech, Aug 2003 by Strothman, Jim

From the plant to academia, InTech's 50 most influential industry innovators.

Fifty years ago, ISA Journal, InTech magazine's predecessor, debuted in January 1954. In that half century, ISA's flagship publication has provided in-depth information about every significant technical development that influenced the world of measurement and control. The experts who helped create those significant developments often bylined InTech articles.

To commemorate our 50th anniversary, InTech's editors asked more than 80 instrumentation and control experts in numerous disciplines to name specific individuals they believe should be listed among the 50 most influential people credited with advancing automation, instrumentation, and control technologies. To put icing on our (anniversary) cake, we also asked those experts to suggest the most influential events and technological developments.

Armed with those expert opinions, InTech's editors pared down the lengthy list and made the final decision. We acknowledge up front any list of "50 most influential individuals" is subjective, at best. In some instances multiple names were combined and counted as one, because they either participated in a joint effort or were considered equal innovators in the same field. However, knowing the depth of expertise among the experts invited to participate in InTech's survey, we're confident the individuals and events that made our final list are most deserving of such an honor.

TECHNOLOGISTS

James Watt Many believe the first significant "control" invention occurred during the Industrial Revolution when Scottish engineer James Watt devised the "flyball" governor for steam engine applications in 1774. That mechanical device, improved versions of which are still in use today, automatically controls the speed of a steam engine.

John G. Ziegler and Nathaniel B. Nichols The first derivative control, dubbed "pre-act," incorporated into the Taylor Model 56R Fulscope controller, which integrated previously separate proportional, integral, derivative (PID) functions for the first time. However, the new controller had one problem: tuning. Taylor engineers Ziegler and Nichols solved the problem by developing the well-known "Ziegler-Nichols" method of tuning, still in use today.

Grace Hopper One of the first programmers to transform large digital computers from oversized calculators into relatively intelligent machines capable of understanding "human" instructions, Hopper in 1952 invented the first computer "compiler"-software that makes other computer software (called programming languages) easier to write. Hopper also developed common business-oriented language (COBOL), which became the most widely used computer business language in the world.

Hyman George Rickover Father of the nuclear Navy, there is no individual more responsible for harnessing nuclear power. From his early days at Oak Ridge,Tenn. to the mid-1980s, Admiral Rickover was a key driver implementing nuclear power in both the U.S. Navy and the commercial power industry. As director of the Naval Reactors Branch, Rickover developed the world's first nuclear powered submarine, USS Nautilus (SSN 571), which went to sea in 1955.

Orville and Wilbur Wright The first fixed-wing aircraft-a kite mounted on a stick-flew almost a century before Orville and Wilbur made their historic first flights. However, the Wrights were first to design and build a flying craft they could control while in the air. Every successful aircraft since the 1902 Wright glider has had controls to roll the wings right or left, pitch the nose up or down, and yaw the nose from side to side. Those three controls let a pilot navigate an airplane in all three dimensions. The entire aerospace business depends on their simple but brilliant idea, as do spacecraft and submarines.

Charles Stark Draper The father of inertial navigation, Draper evolved the theory, invented and developed the gyroscope-based technology, and led the effort that brought inertial navigation to operational use in aircraft, space vehicles, and submarines. Founder of Draper Laboratory in Cambridge, Mass., and professor emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, "Doc" Draper also wrote extensively in the fields of instrumentation and control, served as a consulting engineer to many aeronautical companies and instrument manufacturers, and earned a number of patents for measuring and controlling equipment. Guidance systems used for the flying machines ranging from lunar lander spacecraft to strategic missiles bear the stamp of his genius.

Wernher von Braun One of the most important rocket pioneers, von Braun as a youth became enamored with the possibilities of space exploration and quickly mastered calculus and trigonometry so he could understand the physics of rocketry. His "rocket team"developed the V-2 ballistic missile for the Nazis during World War II; it was, ironically, the immediate antecedent of rockets later used in the U.S. space program. The U.S. Army scooped up von Braun and his rocket team from defeated Germany and sent them to Fort Bliss, Texas, where they worked on rockets.